Due Date: 30th OCT 2010

Submission Date: 30th OCT 2010

MARKETING MANAGEMENT-II

Case 5
The Popeyes Chicken

Submitted by:
Group 4
Name Roll No Batch Phone No Foreian id
Arpansen Gupta 43013 IMG 4 727196515 043013@foreian.com
Chetan Sharma 43017 IMG 4 9811868332 043017@foreian.com
Irshad Ali 43027 IMG 4 9560035670 043027@foreian.com
Puneet Jain 43039 IMG 4 9582408730 043039@foreian.com
Sudhir Mishra 43055 IMG 4 9868070988 043055@foreian.com

Fore School of Management

B-18, Qutab Institutional Area,
New Delhi, India

The “Popeyes Chicken”- Summary

Jay Mary initially started with his family owned chain of supermarket and later switched to
restaurant business. Change in the life style of the people and increased competition made Mary’s
supermarket chain less profitable. The people are so much involved in their professional life that
they find very little time for themselves, so they prefer eating out usually was what he inferred.
Mary had also read in an industrial publication that fast food business is now in mature stage. It is
normally believed that, if a business is in matured stage then it will be difficult for the newbie to
enter the market. National Restaurant Association estimated that in 1983 fast-food restaurant sales
will exceed $37 billion. Sales in the chicken segment were approximately $4 billion and were
predicted to increase by 20 percent in one year. As the demand is very high in the market, existing
players were rapidly growing.

Mary then decided that if the market research says that Popeyes hot-and-spicy Cajun-style chicken is
liked and appreciated by the people in the Minneapolis – St. Paul area, then he will own a franchise.
At that time, Kentucky Fried Chicken was the market leader which controlled half of the market, having ten
times more units than Popeyes. Popeyes stand third in rank with twice the sale of Kentucky’s chicken. In 1983
Popeyes had about 400 fast food outlets in 30 states, across the several countries. The typical
Propeyes’ customers were typically upbeat, young boys and girls. As hot and spicy chicken was USP
of Popeyes, so to give them competition Kentucky introduced its own hot-and-spicy chicken in 400 of
its restaurants. Another hot-and-spicy chicken franchisor, Bojangles, had also entered the market
since Popeyes came on the scene. Bojangles had been successful in this business, but again in the
South.

After having a look on the market research, Mary had determined that the most likely customers
were those with children, of whatever age. He also learned that families with working mothers also
tend to eat out more frequently. According to the survey done:

35

30

25

20
Male
15 Female

10

0
$4.00 + $3.01 to 4.00 $2.50 to 3.00 Less than 2.50
 Per Month

18 – 24
25 – 34
35 – 49
50 – 64
65 +

Frequency of Eating Out:

Questions for discussion

Q1. Do you believe Mary has adequate inputs to decision-making – or is it that he really
needs an real and good research ?

Mary does not have sufficient inputs to decision making. It needs more research that is
directed towards gauging whether or not people in the St. Paul – Minneapolis area would react
favourably to the hot-and-spicy chicken. All the researches provided to Mary do not confirm
that how the people in Minneapolis will react to it. One more fact supporting this would be
that all the successful joints have performed far better in south than in Minneapolis.

Although the basic aim of any research is to decrease uncertainty and provide an directional
input, the secondary researches at Mary’s disposal does not confirm and answer to any of the
concerns that Mary has regarding how people will accept the hot-and-spicy-chicken. The other
positive outcomes of the secondary research like growing income and eating out trends must
be complemented by a primary research wherein a proper questionnaire is drafted to people
at Minneapolis about their likings and views about the growing the fast food industry.

Q2. What is your group’s understanding of market research? What might be in your group’s
opinion characteristics of good market research?

Market research is an organized effort to gather information about markets or customer. An

research could be stated as an Objective, Systematic Process using statistical and analytical
methods of doing various things. It has two functions:-

1) Line Function
2) Support Function

An research can only give the directional input as it can never give the results with 100 percent
surety. Any research will become market research if they end up in accruing two types of data:

1) Primary Data – Done by the company itself by surveying or hiring an agency.

2) Secondary Data – Mostly the research data available through mediums like magazine,
websites, blogs etc.

Market research is done to understand the target market and the segment which it hopes to
cater to.

A good market research is about analysing the competition, consumer behaviour and market
environment and coming up with strategies that stand to gain the best.

Characteristics of good market research:

1) The market research generally arrives at a conclusion either in percentages or the

averages.
2) It provides the directional input to the strategy.
3) It can never give 100% certain results or the results with 100% probability.
4) A research should be :
a. Timely
b. Relevant
c. Efficient
d. Accurate
5) It has a good mix of primary and secondary qualitative and quantitative analysis.
6) Market research should aid the marketer in determining the speed of change of the
market.

Q3. What kind of information and what type of research does J Mary need?

The information that J Mary is looking for is how people in Minneapolis area would react to
the hot-and-spicy chicken. Along with this, he needs to know what age group of people will
 come in, what will be their taste like, how much will they be willing to spend, in groups of how
many they are likely to come, what time of the day they are likely to come, so that he can even
further segment his target customers. Although J Mary has some secondary research available
to him that establishes the facts that the customers of Popeye’s, in general, are upbeat,
young, employed, and equally male and female and black and white , along with the age and
amount spent demographics, he needs to do a proper secondary research to develop an idea
about consumer preferences in Minneapolis area that will help him in analysing with
correctness whether or not to go ahead with executing the plan to set up the franchise.

Q4. If Mary conducts a survey, what contact techniques and sample plan should he use? Can you
draw up a research plan for him?

Mary can make a questionnaire on the food habit of the people of the Minneapolis – St. Paul area.
This will help him in segmenting and targeting the right kind of people. It will help in knowing the
change in consumers’ lifestyle in last few years, so that a proper decision can be taken at the
beginning. Mary can ask the regular customers of Kentucky about their taste and preferences. He
can ask people about Kentucky, what people don’t like about Kentucky or what the areas of
improvement are, So that those questions can be taken into consideration, before opening his
franchise fast food outlet. Research plan would include identification of information like the number
of consumers for fast food especially fried chicken and also analyzing the competition from market
leaders. Preparing a questionnaire which contains these relevant questions & circulation of the
questionnaire in the target market will help identify the right facts.

Q5. Should open-end or closed-end questions be used? Does Mary have a need for a marketing
information system at this time?

Typical questions asked in market research are closed ended i.e. one in which a customer is given a
range, out of which he/she has to make a choice. Sometimes need arises for asking an open ended
question, then that person can include that in his/her questionnaire. Best example related to this
situation is B2B marketing, where a market researcher needs to get the insight of the company i.e.
exact details about company’s growth rate, to make a proper detailed report. Usually market
researchers try to keep the closed ended question, so that it will be easier and less time consuming
for the customers to answer the questionnaire. Market researcher needs to devise the
questionnaire in such a manner that it easy for him/her in future to interpret the answers, to do
proper decision making.

Yes, Mary needs to have market research before entering into business, it will help in taking the best
of decisions. In fact market research is required at every phase of business, whether it is initial
phase, development or matured phase.

The examples of Closed Ended Questions Include

Manager Asking his team mates if the project has been completed?
The Examples of Open Ended Questions include
Manager Asking Team mate about his experience with new project, what he learned and if he
wanted to share something?

Q6. Can you identify any businesses in Indian context that may be in similar situation as projected
in this case and may benefit from research? Please discuss.

I would think of Indian Airlines as one such business which has accumulated losses year on year
basis despite having the best of aircrafts (newly procured ones), infrastructure and Government
support. It still has very low productivity and performance both in terms of revenues as well as
customer satisfaction as compared to other privately managed airlines like spicejet which are
profitable. And this is where Indian Airlines can probably take the help of a comprehensive research
from an independent agency to revamp its operations and turn black.

Relationship to Concept

Various concepts used in the case are as below :

Marketing concept- It determines that the organization should strive to satisfy its customers'
wants and needs while meeting the organization's goals. In simple terms, "the customer is
king". It is adopted by whole organization from top management to the lowest levels and
across all departments of the organization; it is a philosophy or way of doing business. The
customers' needs, wants, and satisfaction should always be foremost in every manager and
employees' mind.

Marketing mix – It is the 4 P’s of marketing which include price, promotion, place, product.

Marketing orientation -Market orientation is the implementation of the marketing concept.

Being marketing orientated is more than just being customer-led. It requires the full support
of the organization to be fully implemented in the long term and, indeed, may need a
complete change in an organization’s culture.

Segmentation – A market segment is a sub-set of a market made up of people with one or

more characteristics that cause them to demand similar product and/or services based on
qualities of those products such as price or taste.

Market Research – Market research is any organized effort to gather information about
markets or customers. It is a very important component of business strategy.

Market Forecast – A market forecast is a core component of a market analysis. It projects

the future numbers, characteristics, and trends in your target market. A standard analysis
shows the projected number of potential customers divided into segments.

Market research & market forecast are very crucial to decision making in marketing. They
are related to each other as a good market forecast cannot be done without performing a good
market research. Market research provides relevant data which helps in taking various
decisions in marketing.